Hopefully, more research and better public, patient, and physician education will eventually help reduce the stigma.
For our part, each of us should take every opportunity to teach others about Migraine as a potentially debilitating genetic neurological disease. There are materials on this site that can be used for that purpose. Please share these links with people and / or print copies to give to people:
- Migraine and Headache Education for Those Who "Don't Get It"
- Any of the articles in our Types of Migraines and Headaches section
MigraineCast also has a podcast to address this issue, Understanding Even When YOU Don't have Migraines.
Our live Migraine chats in June were The Stigma and People Who Don't Understand. You may find the transcripts of those chats interesting:
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Resources:
1 Park J.E.1; Kempner J.2; Young W.B. "The Stigma of Migraine." Poster presentation. 52nd annual meeting of the American Headache Society. Los Angeles. June, 2010.
2 Holohan, Ellin. "For Migraine Sufferers, Stigma Adds to Burden." HealthDay News. Bloomberg Businessweek. June 25, 2010.
Medical review by John Claude Krusz, PhD, MD
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© Teri Robert, 2010. Last updated July 19, 2010.
